Word-Wednesday for November 11, 2026

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for November 11, 2026, the forty-fifth Wednesday of the year, the eighth Wednesday of fall, the second Wednesday of November, and the three-hundred fifteenth day of the year, with fifty days remaining.


Wannaska Phenology Update for November 11, 2026
Northern Flicker
Colaptes auratus — mooningwane in Annishinaabe — are partial migrants, some southern populations south of Wannaska being completely non-migratory. Those that do migrate tend to begin their spring migration into Canada towards the beginning of April and make their return between September and November. This discrepancy makes sense if one considers their ground foraging behavior, where prey can only be found in snow-free locations. During migration, northern flickers may form flocks. Interestingly, their propensity for roosting in cavities is not mitigated during migration. On average, seventy-five per cent of individuals spend their nights in a cavity during migration, even in locations completely unknown to them during migration. According to the Audubon field guide, "flickers are the only woodpeckers that frequently feed on the ground", probing with their beak, also sometimes catching insects in flight. Although they eat fruits, berries, seeds, and nuts, their primary food is insects. Ants alone can make up 45% of their diet. This bird's call is a sustained laugh, ki ki ki ki, quite different from that of the pileated woodpecker, Dryocopus pileatus — meme in Anishinaabe.

November 11 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


November 11 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Closed until further notice; looking for new owner.


Earth/Moon Almanac for November 11, 2026
Sunrise: 7:27am; Sunset: 4:49pm; 2 minutes, 54 seconds less daylight today
Moonrise: 10:23am; Moonset: 5:44pm, waxing crescent, 5% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for November 11, 2026
                Average            Record              Today
High             34                     57                     39
Low              19                    -15                     25

My November Guest
by Robert Frost

My sorrow, when she’s here with me,
     Thinks these dark days of autumn rain
Are beautiful as days can be;
She loves the bare, the withered tree;
     She walks the sodden pasture lane.

Her pleasure will not let me stay.
     She talks and I am fain to list:
She’s glad the birds are gone away,
She’s glad her simple worsted grey
     Is silver now with clinging mist.

The desolate, deserted trees,
     The faded earth, the heavy sky,
The beauties she so truly sees,
She thinks I have no eye for these,
     And vexes me for reason why.

Not yesterday I learned to know
     The love of bare November days
Before the coming of the snow,
But it were vain to tell her so,
     And they are better for her praise.

November 11 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Chicken Lady Day
• National Candy Day
• Veterans Day

November 11 Word Pun
Sven went fishing and used peas for bait. It was his first pod cast.


November 11 Word Riddle
From where does saliva come?*


November 11 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
LAST, n., A shoemaker's implement, named by a frowning Providence as opportunity to the maker of puns.

    Ah, punster, would my lot were cast,
    Where the cobbler is unknown,
    So that I might forget his last
    And hear your own.
                —Gargo Repsky


November 11 Etymology Word of the Week
innuendo
/in-yə-WEN-dō/ n., an indirect, subtle, or veiled remark that suggests something—often negative, insulting, or sexual—without stating it directly, from "oblique hint, indiscreet suggestion," usually a deprecatory one, 1670s, from Latin innuendo "by meaning, pointing to," literally "giving a nod to," ablative of gerund of innuere "to mean, signify," literally "to nod to," from in- "at" + nuere "to nod" (see numinous).

Originally in English a legal phrase (1560s) from Medieval Latin, with the sense of "to wit," introducing an explanatory or parenthetical clause, it also introduced the derogatory meaning alleged in libel cases, which led to broader meaning. As a verb, from 1706.


November 11 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1647 Massachusetts passes first compulsory school attendance law in the American colonies.
• 1807 Washington Irving's Salmagundi periodical, the first to associate the name "Gotham" with New York City, is published.
• 1865 Thomas William Robertson's play Society premieres.
• 1899 Stuart/Rubens/Boyd-Jones' Floradora premieres.
• 1901 Maurice Ravel's piano composition Jeux d'eau premieres.
• 1906 British composers Ethel Smyth's opera The Wreckers (Standrecht) premieres.
• 1909 J M Synge's Tinker's Wedding premieres.
• 1954 Publication of Two Towers, the second volume of Lord of the Rings, by J. R. R. Tolkien.
• 1961 Catch-22 by Joseph Heller is published.
• 1965 William Alfred's Hogan's Goat premieres.

November 11 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1493 Bernardo Tasso, Italian courtier and poet.
• 1579 Frans Snyders, Flemish painter.
• 1668 Johann Albert Fabricius, German author.
• 1688 Lorenzo Somis, Italian composer.
• 1690 Gerhard Hoffmann, German composer.
• 1696 Andrea Zani, Italian composer.
• 1722 Johann Philipp Sack, German composer.
• 1731 Carl Joseph Toeschi, German composer.
• 1767 Bernhard Romberg, German cellist, composer.
• 1770 Jan Theobald Held, Czech composer.
• 1788 Mikhail Vielgorsky, Russian composer.
• 1821 Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russian author.
• 1832 Paolo Giorza, Italian-Australian composer.
• 1836 Thomas Bailey Aldrich, American writer.
• 1855 Stevan Sremac, Serbian author.
• 1858 Marie Bashkirtseff, Russian diarist and painter.
• 1863 Paul Signac, French painter.
• 1868 Édouard Vuillard, French painter and graphic artist.
• 1869 Dorothea Conyers, Irish author.
• 1870 Nils Kjær, Norwegian playwright.
• 1873 Rudolf Kassner, Czech writer.
• 1890 Hana Dostalová, Czech artist.
• 1894 Aaron Avshalomov, Russian-Jewish-American composer.
• 1895 Beulah Ecton Woodard, African-American sculptor.
• 1895 Jakov Gotovac, Croatian composer.
• 1913 German Leont'yevich Zhukovsky, Ukrainian composer.
• 1914 Howard Fast, American novelist.
• 1915 Bernhard Heiliger, German artist and sculptor.
• 1917 Julien-François Zbinden, Swiss jazz pianist, and jazz and classical composer.
• 1917 Mack Reynolds, American science fiction author.
• 1918 Jürg Baur, German composer.
• 1919 Kalle Päätalo, Finnish novelist.
• 1922 Kurt Vonnegut, American author.
• 1927 Mose Allison, American jazz and blues piano player, singer, and composer.
• 1928 Arthur Cunningham, American composer.
• 1928 Carlos Fuentes, Mexican author.
• 1929 Hans Magnus Enzensberger, German writer, poet.
• 1936 Juan Carlos Zorzi, Argentinian composer.
• 1937 Alicia Ostriker, American poet.
• 1939 Doris Derby, American activist, academic and photographer.
• 1950 Mircea Dinescu, Romanian poet.
• 1954 Mary Gaitskill, American writer.
• 1970 Lee Battersby, Australian science fiction author.

Words-I-Looked-Up-This-Week Writer's Challenge 
Write a story or pram from the following words:

• bailaora: /bye-lah-OH-rah/ n., a female flamenco dancer.
• delaquesce: /del-uh-kwes/ v., to melt away, dissolve, or become liquid by absorbing moisture from the air; also, in botany, to describe a structure that branches repeatedly or breaks down into smaller parts.
• delitescency: /del-uh-TESS-uhn-see/ n., the state or condition of being hidden; concealment; seclusion.
• filemot: /FIL-ə-mot/ adj., having the dull yellowish-brown or russet color of a dead or faded autumn leaf; also, a noun referring to this particular shade.
• marcid: /MAR-suhd/ adj., lean, withered, shrunken, or wasting away.
• occhiolism: /OC-chi-əl-izəm/ n., the awareness of the smallness of your perspective.
• pouf: /po͞of/ n., a large, thick, backless, and legless cushion or soft seat that sits directly on the floor.
• sconce: /skaans/ n., a light fixture or candle holder that is mounted directly onto a wall rather than placed on a table or hung from a ceiling.
• tarache: /tar-ak-AY/ n., disturbance, commotion, turmoil, or sedition.
• wojus: /WOH-juss/ adj., IRISH SLANG, of poor quality, low standard, woefully bad, or awful.

November 11, 2026 Word-Wednesday Feature
Insultory Artistry, Part II
Affront, abuse, barb, deride, dig, disparage, innuendo, mock, offend, put-down, ridicule, slander, slur, or taunt, creative insults spice up the writing about any relationship between protagonist and antagonist. Last week we looked at Shakespeare; this week we look at James Joyce. Word-Wednesday staff and Chairman Joe continue to independently work their ways through Finnegans Wake. At the pace of five pages per day, Word-Wednesday has reached the half-way point, and can look back to report on a collection of Joycean insults.

In Chapter 1.3 of Finnegans Wake, Joyce's protagonist, Humphrey Chimpden Earwicker (HCE) — a natural-born narcissist — compiles a catalog of over a hundred abusive names, insults, and slanders he has allegedly been called. HCE's legendary (in his own mind) list represents the "crushing" weight of public gossip, paranoia, and shifting dream-identities surrounding his mysterious sin in Phoenix Park, and upon which his ego thrives. Joyce being Joyce, Finnegans Wake dwells in a sort of dream-logic with multilingual puns, where the HCE insults arise as historical, biblical, and sexual allegories characterizing HCE's archetypal flaws:

• Acoustic Disturbance: Reduced here from a human being to a mere auditory annoyance. It mocks HCE as a noisy, flatulent nuisance or a jarring interruption in the neighborhood.
• Artist Unworthy of the Homely Protestant Religion: A long-winded, yet specific slander, attacking HCE's pretension of being a respectable, domestic Protestant churchgoer, exposing him as a fraudulent actor.
• Bad Humborg: A multilingual pun combining Charles Dickens' Scrooge ("Bah, Humbug!") with the German city of Hamburg. It brands HCE a counterfeit fraud from abroad.
• Bogside Beauty: An ironic, mocking jab at HCE’s physical appearance, evoking a crude "beauty" pulled straight from an Irish peat bog.
• Burnham and Bailey: References the famous American circus, Barnum & Bailey, characterizing HCE not as a respected citizen, but as a ridiculous, chaotic three-ring sideshow freak.
• Cainandabler: A portmanteau word insult based on the biblical brothers Cain and Abel. It brands HCE as a split personality containing both the murderer and the victim, mirroring the eternal brotherly conflict of his sons, Shem and Shaun.
• Edomite: A biblical slur referencing the descendants of Esau (Edom), who sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, labeling HCE an outcast, a pagan, and a spiritual traitor.
• Fast in the Barrel: Implies that HCE is tightly wedged or trapped inside a barrel—likely a beer or whiskey cask—alluding to his deep alcoholism and public public-house confinement.
• Leathertogs Donald: Mocks HCE by dressing him up like a crude, rustic caricature wearing rough leather clothes (a sexy Ronald McDonald in leather).
• Lobsterpot Lardling: Paints HCE as a fat, greasy creature trapped helplessly inside a bottom-dwelling lobster trap.
• Luck Before Wedlock: A sharp, puritanical, alliterative swipe at HCE’s checkered sexual history, implying sinful, premarital promiscuity or an accidental pregnancy ("luck") before marriage.
• Lycanthrope: Characterizes HCE as a werewolf, a beastly shape-shifter who loses his humanity and prowls the park at night.
• Moonface the Murderer: Characterizes HCE as a pale, dull, round-faced villain lurking in the dark shadows of the park.
• Old Fruit: A deceptive term of faux-casual British camaraderie ("old fruit") that shifts here into a jab at HCE as an aging, decaying piece of fruit—ripe for a fall from grace.
• Plowp Goes his Whastle: A dirty play on the old nursery phrase. Pop goes the weasel, describing a sudden, clumsy, deflationary collapse of HCE's pride or masculinity.
• Sleeps with Feathers end Ropes: Implies a bizarre, kinky, unhinged domestic arrangement—combining the luxury of feathers with the restraint or danger of ropes.
• Sickfish Bellyup: An image of defeat and vulnerability. HCE is characterized as a dead or dying fish floating powerlessly on the water's surface.
• Sower Rapes: A dark, sour pun on "sour grapes" and "sowing seeds". It frames HCE as a bitter, predatory violator whose legacy is toxic.
• Stodge Arschmann: A hybrid Anglo-German insult, combining stodge (a dull, heavy, stuffed person) with the German Arschmann (ass-man), explicitly framing HCE as a boring, rear-end-obsessed buffoon.
• Thinks He’s Gobblast the Good Dook of Ourguile: A multi-layered pun playing on the historic "Good Duke of Argyll". Joyce warps it into "Gob-blast" (a cursed mouth) and "Our-guile" (our shared deceit), mocking HCE's unearned arrogance and hypocrisy.
• Twelve Months Aristocrat: Paints HCE as a cheap nouveau-riche aristocrat whose status or money is fleeting, lasting only a single year.
• Wants a Wife and Forty of Them: Shows HCE as a voracious, hyper-sexual patriarch who demands a massive harem like an insatiable Eastern sultan.
• Wheatears: A type of small northern bird, Dublining as an insult pointing to a "blockhead" or someone whose ears are stuffed with chaff, unable to hear the truth.
• Woolworth’s Worst: A brutally “modern” insult for 1939, reducing HCE from a grand, tragic hero to the absolute cheapest, most defective piece of junk found in a five-and-dime bargain bin.
• York’s Porker: A pun blending the historic English House of York with a gluttonous pig. It mocks HCE's heavy, swine-like physique and his foreign Anglo-Saxon origins.

Only Joyce could do such a protagonist justice.


From A Year with Rilke, November 11 Entry
Three Sprigs of Heather, from Letter to Clara Westhoff Rilke, September 13, 1907

Never has heather so touched and even moved me as when I found these three sprigs in your dear letter. Since then they lie in the pages of my Book of Images and permeate them with their strong, serious fragrance which is actually only the scent of autumnal Earth. And how marvelous is this scent. Never, it seems to me, has Earth so let herself be inhaled in one single fragrance. The ripe Earth, in one fragrance that is no less intense than that of the sea: bitter if you could taste it and more like honey if you could hear it. Such depths in it, of darkness, almost of the grave, and yet again wind, tar and turpentine and Ceylon tea. Serious and destitute like a beggar-monk, while also like the most precious incense, hearty and resinous. And to behold it: these sprigs of heather are like most elegant embroidery—with the violet-hued silk (a violet so moist it could be the sun's complementary color) stitching cypresses in a Persian carpet. You had to have seen that. I think that the little sprigs could not have been so lovely before you put them in your  letter. You must have told them something amazing.

Clara Rilke of Westhoff
by Paula Modersohn-Becker

Be better than yesterday, 
learn a new word today, 
try to stay out of trouble — at least until tomorrow, 
and write when you have the time.







*The ptooey-tary gland.